Fated
by xDisgraceful Avengerx
Summary: Homura was the essence of darkness; she struck fear into the hearts of humans and vampires alike. Except for that girl with the blue hair... Vampire AU, HomuSaya.
1. Introduction

**Trying to get my inspiration back...this is what came of it. No, this is not your overly clichéd vampire story, by the way. **

**Anyway, hopefully I will be able to work on Catechism and WTTQR soon...but until then...enjoy. :)**

* * *

Homura was cold.

Not physically, of course. That was impossible. The icy March air had no effect on her; her body was impervious to little things like weather. No, this cold was inside her.

She stood looking at the bay and the thriving city across it. Mitakihara by starlight. It had taken her a long time to come back to Mitakihara after . . . the change.

She'd lived there once, when she'd been human. But in those days Mitakihara was nothing but three hills, one beacon, and a handful of houses with thatched roofs. The place where she was standing now had been clean beach surrounded by salt meadows and dense forest.

The year had been 1639.

Mitakihara had grown since then, but Homura hadn't.

She was still eighteen, still the young woman who'd loved the sunny pastures and the clear blue water of the wilderness. Who had lived simply, feeling grateful when there was enough food for supper on her mother's table, and who had dreamed of someday having her own fishing schooner and marrying pretty Madoka Kaname.

That was how it had all started, with Madoka. Pretty Madoka and her soft pink hair . . . sweet Madoka, who had a secret a simple girl like Homura could never have imagined.

Well. Homura felt her lip curl. That was all in the past. Madoka had been dead for centuries, and if her screams still haunted her every night, no one knew but herself.

Because she might not be any older than she had been in the days of the colonies, but she had learned a few tricks. Like how to wrap ice around her heart so that nothing in the world could hurt her. And how to put ice in her gaze, so that whoever looked into her black eyes saw only an endless glacial dark. She'd gotten very good at that. Some people actually went pale and backed away when she turned her eyes on them.

The tricks had worked for years, allowing her not just to survive as a vampire, but to be brilliantly successful at it. She was Homura, pitiless as a snake, whose blood ran like ice water, whose soft voice pronounced doom on anybody who got in her way. Homura, the essence of darkness, who struck fear into the hearts of humans and vampires alike.

And just at the moment, she was tired.

Tired and cold. This was a kind of bleakness inside her, like a winter that would never change into spring.

She had no idea what to do about it-although it had occurred to her that if she were to jump into the bay and let those dark waters close over her head, and then stay down there for a few days without feeding . . . well, all her problems would be solved, wouldn't they?

But that was ridiculous. She was Homura. Nothing could touch her. The bleak feeling would go away eventually.

She pulled herself out of her reverie, turning away from the shimmering blackness of the bay. Maybe she should go to the warehouse in Mission Hill, check on its inhabitants. She needed something to do, to keep her from thinking.

Homura smiled, knowing it was a smile to frighten children. She set off for Mitakihara.

* * *

**End Prologue.**


	2. The Vampire

**Chapter 1. Regards to Yuma and the mention of Kirika; they are from Madoka Magica's sister series, Oriko Magica. Outside of that, this chapter is completely unbeta'd, so please feel free to point out any errors. **

* * *

The sounds were coming from a pool of darkness beside one of the warehouses, far from the nearest streetlight. As Sayaka reached the place, she could make out the forms of Mami and Kyoko, their faces masked, their clubs in their hands. They were struggling with another form.

Oh, for God's sake, Sayaka thought, stopping dead.

One other form. The two of them, armed with wood and lying in ambush, couldn't handle one little vampire by themselves? From the racket, she'd thought they must have been surprised by a whole army.

But this vampire seemed to be putting up quite a fight-in fact, she was clearly winning. Throwing her attackers around with supernatural strength, just as if they were ordinary humans and not fearless vampire slayers. She seemed to be enjoying it.

"We've got to help them!" Yuma hissed in Sayaka's ear.

Sayaka frowned. "Wait here; I'm going to bonk her on the head."

It wasn't quite that easy. Sayaka got behind the vampire without trouble; she was preoccupied with the other two and arrogant enough to be careless. But then she had a problem.

Her bokken, the honorable sword of a warrior, had one purpose: to deliver a clean blow capable of killing instantly. She couldn't bring herself to whack somebody unconscious with it.

It wasn't that she didn't have other weapons. She had plenty-back at home in Marblehead. All the tools of a ninja, and some the ninja had never heard of. And she knew some extremely dirty methods of fighting. She could break bones and crush tendons; she could peel an enemy's trachea out of her neck with her bare hands or drive her ribs into her lungs with her feet.

But those were desperate measures, to be used as a last resort when her own life was at stake and the opposition was overwhelming. She simply couldn't do that to a single enemy when she had the jump on her.

Just then the single enemy threw Mami into a wall, where she landed with a muffled "oof." Sayaka felt sorry for her, but it solved her dilemma. She grabbed the oak club Mami had been holding as it rolled across the concrete. Then she circled nimbly as the vampire turned, trying to face her. At that instant Yuma threw herself into the fight, creating a distraction, and Sayaka did what she'd said she would. She bonked the vampire on the head, driving the club like a home runner's swing with the force of her hips.

The vampire cried out and fell down motionless.

Sayaka raised the club again, watching her. Then she lowered it, looking at Mami and Kyoko. "You guys okay?"

Kyoko nodded stiffly. She was trying to get her breath. "She surprised us," she said.

Sayaka didn't answer. She was very unhappy, and her feeling of being in top form tonight had completely evaporated. This had been the most undignified fight she'd seen in a long while, and . . .

. . . and it bothered her, the way the vampire had cried out as she fell. She couldn't explain why, but it had.

Mami picked herself up. "She shouldn't have been able to surprise us," she said. "That was our fault."

Sayaka glanced at her. It was true. In this business, you were either ready all the time, expecting the unexpected at any moment, or you were dead.

"She was just good," Kyoko said shortly. "Come on, let's get her out of here before somebody sees us. There's a cellar in the other building."

Sayaka took hold of the vampire's feet while Mami grabbed her shoulders. She wasn't very big, about Sayaka's height and compact. She looked young, about Sayaka's age.

Which meant nothing, she reminded herself. A parasite could be a thousand and still look young. They gained eternal life from other people's blood.

She and Mami carried their burden down the stairs into a large dank room that smelled of damp rot and mildew. They dropped her on the cold concrete floor and Sayaka straightened to ease her back.

"Okay. Now let's see what she looks like," Kyoko said, and turned her flashlight on her.

The vampire was pale, and her black hair looked even blacker against her white skin. Her eyelashes were dark on her cheek. A little blood matted her hair in the back.

"I don't think she's the same one Kirika and I saw last night. It was bigger," Yuma said.

Kyoko pressed forward, staring at her captive vampire. "What difference does it make? She's one of them, right? Nobody human could have thrown Mami like that. She might even be the one who killed my sister. And she's ours now." She smiled down, looking almost like someone in love. "You're ours," she said to the unconscious girl on the floor. "Just you wait."

Mami rubbed her shoulder where it had hit the wall. All she said was "Yeah," but her smile wasn't nice.

"I only hope she doesn't die soon," Kyoko said, examining the pale face critically, before glaring at Sayaka. "You hit her pretty hard."

"She's not going to die," Sayaka said. "In fact, she'll probably wake up in a few minutes. And we'd better hope she's not one of the really powerful telepaths."

Yuma looked up. "What?"

"Oh-all vampires are telepathic," Sayaka said absently. "But there's a big range as to how powerful they are. Most of them can only communicate over a short distance-like within the same house, say. But a few are a lot stronger."

"Even if she is strong, it won't matter unless there are other vampires around," Kyoko said.

"Which this may be, if Yuma and Kirika saw another one last night."

"Well . . ." Kyoko hesitated, then said, "We can check outside, make sure she doesn't have any friends hiding around that warehouse."

Mami was nodding, and Yuma was listening intently. Sayaka started to say that from what she'd seen, they couldn't find a vampire in hiding to save their lives-but then she changed her mind.

"Good idea," she said. "You take Yuma and do that. It's better to have three people than two. I'll tie her up before she comes around. I've got bast cord."

Kyoko glanced over quickly, but her hostility seemed to have faded since Sayaka had knocked the vampire over the head. "Okay, but let's use the handcuffs. Yuma, run up and get them."

Yuma did, and she and Kyoko fixed the wooden stocks on the vampire's wrists. Then they left with Mami.

Sayaka sat on the floor.

She didn't know what she was doing, or why she'd sent Yuma away. All she knew was that she wanted to be alone, and that she felt . . . rotten.

It wasn't that she didn't have anger. These were times when she got so angry at the universe that it was actually like a little voice inside her whispering,

Kill, kill, kill. Times when she wanted to strike out blindly, without caring who she hurt.

But just now the little voice was silent, and Sayaka felt sick.

To keep herself busy, she tied the girl's feet with bast, a cord made from the inner bark of trees. It was as good for holding a vampire as Kyoko's ridiculous handcuffs.

When it was done, she turned the flashlight on her again.

She was good-looking. Clean features that were strongly chiseled but delicate. A mouth that at the moment looked rather innocent, but which might be sensuous if she were awake. A body that was lithe and flat-muscled, if not very tall.

All of which had no effect on Sayaka. She'd seen attractive vampires before-in fact, an inordinate number of them seemed to be really beautiful. It didn't mean anything. It only stood as a contrast to what they were like inside.

The tall man who'd killed her mother had been handsome. She could still see his face, his golden eyes.

Filthy parasites. Vampire scum. They weren't really people. They were monsters.

But they could still feel pain, just like any human. She'd hurt this one when she hit her.

Sayaka jumped up and started to pace the cellar.

All right. This vampire deserved to die. They all did. But that didn't mean she had to wait for Kyoko to come back and poke her with pointy sticks.

Sayaka knew now why she'd sent Yuma away. So she could give the vampire a clean death. Maybe she didn't deserve it, but she couldn't stand around and watch Kyoko kill her slowly. She couldn't.

She stopped pacing and went to the unconscious girl.

The flashlight on the floor was still pointing at her, so she could see her clearly. She was wearing a lightweight black shirt-no sweater or coat. Vampires didn't need protection from the cold. Sayaka unbuttoned the shirt, exposing her chest. Although the angled tip of her bokken could pierce clothing, it was easier to drive it straight into vampire flesh without any barrier in between.

Standing with one foot on either side of the vampire's waist, she drew the heavy wooden sword. She held it with both hands, one near the guard, the other near the knob on the end of the hilt.

She positioned the end exactly over the vampire's heart.

Then she took a deep breath, eyes shut. She needed to work to focus, because she'd never done anything like this before. The vampires she'd killed had usually been caught in the middle of some despicable act-and they'd all been fighting at the end. She'd never staked one that was lying still.

She felt her feet becoming part of the cold concrete beneath her, her muscles and bones becoming extensions of the ground. The strike would carry the energy of the earth itself.

Her hands brought the sword up. She was ready for the kill. She opened her eyes to perfect her aim.

And then she saw that the vampire was awake. Her eyes were open and she was looking at her.

* * *

**End Chapter 1.**


End file.
